“Science: It’s a Girl Thing!” That’s what is claimed in a goofy public service announcement, made by the European Commission, which aims to convince young women that science careers are in fact “cool.” Naturally, for a few days the Twittersphere has been atwitter over the very pink ad, which instead shows that girls can simultaneously do science and appear in an ’80s music video … ?

Today on Boingboing, Maggie Koerth-Baker has posted a great response to the ad, in the form of an interview with Dr. Margo Seltzer, a computer scientist at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In the interview, Seltzer says that she does think the public image of “scientists” as male affects young girls’ desire to join the ranks.

“As a society we’ve done a really, really bad job of marketing what it means to be in software,” Seltzer says. “If you ask somebody, ‘What does a computer programmer look like?’ I think almost everyone in the world will give you the same description — it’s a nerdy guy with no social skills.”

Last night at TED2013, the Motion Picture Association of America hosted a nighttime discussion on the topic of how film has shaped some of modern day’s most cutting-edge technology. The prime example: John Underkoffler’s user interface inspired by his work on Minority Report. We were joined by Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects division of […]

Counting down the final hours of the workweek is a Friday afternoon tradition. And today, you have extra incentive to watch the clock — TEDxWomen kicks off at 6pm in Washington, DC. While one session of the event — “Poverty and Plenty,” hosted by Pat Mitchell of The Paley Center for Media — is taking […]

LOL! That first video shows a really fluffed up version of science women. LOL. It looks like some kind of cheese-ball music video!!
Real science is hard work and endless failure. It’s not always glamourous either! (if ever). Digging through bat crap to see what it ate isnt really something you do while wearing your fave heels and a bright pink top… unless you are me. Hehe. But I dont generally dig through bat crap. That’s not my end of science. :D

ANYWAYS The response video is interesting but only because it protrays the sensitive ‘nerdy’ science girl. Which is also not the best image either because that is basically ‘glasses/ ponytail’ girl from She’s All That.

REAL science women are not afraid to fail and might be sensitive and wear their hair in a pony tail, but they are not meant to be type cast in this way. They have all the insecurities, imprefections, and scars that any other woman has. Just be who you are and do what you want..even if that means digging through bat crap while wearing heels or a full-body suit and mask. :)

I think your numbers just made the point: “Over 75+ TED talks by women.” out of a total of over a 1000 TED talks. When I go to the current page for TED talks, the front page shows me 18 men and 2 women. By any standard, your own numbers are lower than the average in pretty much every field.